Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A surprise concert

I just realized that I never posted about a concert we went to back in April.Since Biscuit is immersed in "Star Wars," when I saw an announcement for a music program that would feature music from the movie, I knew we had to go. But I didn't tell Biscuit. I wanted it to be a surprise.The symphony one city over planned a performance of the John Williams' "Star Wars" songs (he's the guy who composed the music for that movie and a bunch of others), and they also included songs that inspired him to write the movie's music.Before the concert started, there were a lot of activities set up for the kids. They had an instrument petting zoo. That's where they put orchestra instruments out and show kids how to play them. Since my brother's plays trumpet, Biscuit decided that's what he would try.

Here's how to hold it.

Blow really hard.

Enjoy the sound you made.

Next came the characters. Don't even ask me the names of most of these critters ... because I don't know them. But Biscuit did. He asked for them by name. Here's Biscuit with some of the characters he wanted to have pictures with.

Biscuit with Boba Fett.

Biscuit and a Clone.

Biscuit and Rey (from the newest movie).

Biscuit holds a Commander Stormtrooper at gunpoint.

Biscuit and a Tuscan Raider.

Biscuit battles Darth Vader.

Looks like they made friends.

Biscuit with some Stormtroopers and Kylo Ren (from the newest movie).

The orchestra members took their seats and started to tune up their instruments. Then everything got quiet, and a fully-robed Jedi came out onstage, complete with the hood.He stepped up on the podium and flipped back the hood. It was the conductor of the orchestra! All the kids loved that, and he got a big round of applause.He explained that they were going to play a song from the movie, then play the song that inspired John Williams to write it. It was really cool, and you could definitely hear the influence of the songs.At one point, they started playing "Imperial March," aka Darth Vader's song. About halfway through the song, Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper came walking out onstage.Darth Vader stopped right in front of the conductor and held his hand up to do a "force choke." That's one of the evil powers he has. He can choke people without even touching them.

For illustration purposes.

So the conductor grabbed at his throat and pretended to stagger around. Then the Stormtrooper held the conductor at gunpoint on the side of the stage while Darth Vader conducted the rest of the song with his red lightsaber.It got a big reaction from the crowd.At the end, all the dressed-up characters came down and stood in front of the crowd. I was too short to take a picture, so I got Jeff to take one.

The kids got miniature lightsabers to wave around during the music, so Biscuit and I had to fight with ours after the show.

And because I've noticed that Biscuit and I don't often have photos taken together, I got Jeff to snap one of us.